Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson’s Bottom reunion series Hooligan’s Island has been scrapped, RadioTimes.com can reveal. A BBC spokesperson confirmed that the comedy project, which was announced in August, will no longer be going ahead, but declined to comment further.

Adrian Edmondson gave an interview on Ollie Winberg’s BBC Radio Essex programme over the weekend, during which he was asked about the progress of the series and said: “There isn’t a Bottom series four. There isn’t anything.

“We started working on something and we realised why we stopped working together. It wasn’t working.”

Elaborating on why he chose to back out of the project, Edmondson explained: “Because I enjoy other things more.

“I’m aware that people think comedy’s easy to do and write and everything, and it relatively is to be honest. But once you get to a certain age you want to do things you really enjoy, not just things you can do.”

The show would have seen Bottom characters Richard Richard and Eddie Hitler transplanted from their Hammersmith flat to a deserted tropical island, an idea first explored in Rik and Ade’s 1997 Bottom live show, which was also called Hooligan’s Island.